Star Wars: Rebellion and Betrayal

Chapter 4

The thrusters roared on Abie's fighter as the engines powered up. The fighter was ready to go when Abie climbed up into the cockpit. "All wings check in," Abie said into her headset.

"Can I be Cloud Two now that Twitch's fighter is gone?" McCart asked. His request was quickly declined. "Fine." He started. "Cloud Three checking in."

"Cloud Four checking in!" Nina shouted into her headset. The others cringed at Nina's loud squeaky voice screeching over the comm channel.

"Do you have to be so chipper, Nina?" McCart shouted back.

Before Nina could defend herself, Abie cut in. "Shush, you two. We have a job to do. I have sent the coordinates to your fighter's navicomputers. Follow me and we will make the jump."

Both of her officers acknowledged the command as Abie's A-wing broke away from the flagship. As she flew away from the ship, two more A-wing fighters could be seen exiting the hangar of the ship. Abie led the way with the others flanking either side of her. Once clear of the Insurgent, the three fighters jumped to hyperspace.

Abie closed her eyes as she prepared for the mission. A mission that shouldn't have even been necessary. If she had just been on Onderon when the Empire attacked, she could have done something. Abie couldn't help but feel responsible for what had happened. Instead of being there for her people, she had to be off helping Rhodes on his own escapade. While his job was a success, it ended poorly for Abie. It kept her away from her camp at the worst time, Twitch lost an arm, and Abie herself was shot in the leg, a wound that she was still recovering from. As much as she wanted to blame Rhodes, he did his best to keep everyone on their crew safe, often putting most of the risk on himself.

Before Abie could get too deep into thought, BO-Z issued a few beeps indicating their arrival. Abie's eyes snapped open as she put a hand on a lever in front of her. "Alright everyone, dropping out of hyperspace in three, two, one."

The three fighters simultaneously exited hyperspace. In their viewports they could see a small green planet in the distance with a couple of ships sitting in orbit. "Alright team, it looks like we have a rinky-dink hammerhead corvette being escorted by a Gozanti-class freighter carrying four TIE fighters. We need to go in hot and try to take out as many of their fighters as we can before they launch. Only fire on Imperial targets, even if the fighters attached to the hammerhead engage. They will not hit you."

Nina and McCart acknowledged the order and prepared for battle. Abie hit the thruster and her A-wing took off toward the enemy ships. Nina and McCart's fighters followed closely behind.

Abie's transponder began to beep, indicating an incoming message. Abie, unable to help her curiosity, let the message through. "Approaching vessels, change your course immediately or we will open fire. This is a diplomatic escort commissioned by the Imperial Senate." The voice on the other end had a frantic tone to which Abie of course ignored.

She closed the channel without responding and remained on a collision course with the Gozanti freighter. "Let them have it!" Abie yelled as the ships approached their target.

The cannons of the three fighters engaged and sent a volley of blaster bolts toward the fighters docked on the underside of the freighter. The bolts ripped through the hulls of three of the four fighters, destroying them before they could launch.

Abie and her squadron dove under the freighter swerving to avoid the falling debris. The final fighter dropped from the Gozanti in pursuit of the group.

"Split off!" Abie yelled.

McCart swerved left toward open space and Nina swerved to the right toward the Hammerhead. By now, two Y-wing bombers had detached from the Hammerhead with one following Nina and the other heading toward McCart. The last TIE fighter remained in pursuit of Abie.